Happy Holidays! from Charley and Suzie and me

winter garden

My garden is snow covered from an early storm. We got about 5 inches of heavy wet snow yesterday. My winter tunnel collapsed at the ends. I didn't put the top support on. I'll do that soon. I use duct tape and attach a PVC pipe along the top apex of each hoop to keep the hoops from collapsing inward. I'm also missing a hoop at the left end.

I opened up the tunnel today and loved the feel of the warm humid air that escaped. It's great how the sun warms the air through the greenhouse plastic. My tunnel has two layers - one of greenhouse plastic and then another of winter fabric row cover.



I've been experimenting with different greens in my tunnel. Spinach always does super well. I tried a big row of arugula this year and it's awesome too. Escarole and mustard greens are great. I pick a salad bowl once a week and alternate with store-bought. I have several varieties of lettuce growing. I'm really pleased with my iceberg lettuce Ice Queen. I have 4 heads and looking forward to harvesting a couple for a nice Christmas salad. I think this lettuce would be even better if I had started it a bit earlier and had bigger heads, but the loose outer greens are holding up really well in the cold tunnel.

All of my greens will start growing soon - late January - once the sunlight starts to increase. Nothing's growing now, but my tunnel greens always grow like crazy with increasing sun and then by Feb and March it's full. I pick leaves here and there and am patient until the daylight increases.